GPH.L Share News (GPH)

LONDON (Alliance News) - Global Ports Holdings PLC said Monday it suffered a wider pretax loss for the first quarter of 2019, due to increased port operating rights amortisation in the period and largely flat revenue.

For the three months to the end of March, the cruise port operator reported a pretax loss of USD12.6 million, widened from USD9.6 million the year before, partly due to USD8.4 million in port operating rights amortisation. Excluding this, the underlying loss after tax widened to USD5.5 million from USD700,000.

Revenue edged up to USD20.7 million from USD20.6 million for the quarter, while passenger numbers rose by 52% to 510,000, and container throughput was up 2.6% to 52,400 twenty-foot equivalent units, though general & bulk cargo fell 59% to 196,800 tonnes.

Looking, ahead, Global Ports's trading since the end of the first quarter has been in line with management expectations.

As a result, it still expects to deliver on its expectations of mid to high single-digit percentage growth for earnings before interest, taxes, deprecation and amortisation for 2019.

"Trading has been positive, with good growth in cruise passenger volumes and Cruise Ebitda, albeit the first quarter is a seasonally quiet period for the cruise business," said Chief Executive officer Emre Sayin.

"While some negative volume trends at our commercial ports have persisted into the first quarter of 2019, overall the ports continue to perform in line with our Ebitda expectations and our work to diversify our revenue streams means we remain confident of good Commercial Ebitda performance in the year," Sayin added.

Shares in Global Ports Holdings were down 2.9% at 375.98 pence on Monday.